In existing hybrid vehicles, a hot-wire heater or a ceramic-based positive temperature coefficient (PTC) heater is separately mounted to supply hot air, which is heated by the heater as needed, via a fan, thereby improving battery efficiency.
Existing heaters have high initial inrush current, which results in at least twice as much current consumption as the heaters need, and are configured to supply heated air, thereby causing significant reduction in charge capacity of a battery due to heat generation and high initial current consumption in an initial operation stage. Further, in pure electric vehicles, the charge amount of the battery directly affects operation efficiency, so that the existing heaters are not suitable for such electric vehicles.
Thus, one embodiment of the present invention provides a battery assembly, in which a heater is realized using a planar heating body coated with carbon nanotubes (CNTs), such that the heater can be more uniformly and quickly heated by direct thermal conduction, thereby improving initial operation efficiency of the battery assembly.